Chess piece

Original Staunton chess pieces
Left to right: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, king

A chess piece, or chessman, is any of the six different types of movable objects used on a chessboard to play the game of chess.

Number of pieces[]

Chess pieces

	King
	Queen
	Rook
	Bishop
	Knight
	Pawn

Each player begins with a total of sixteen pieces (but see the subsection below for other usage of the term piece). The pieces that belong to each player are distinguished by color. The lighter colored pieces are referred to as "white," and the player that owns them, "White". The darker colored pieces are referred to as "black", and the player that owns them, "Black".

In a standard game, each of the two players begins with the following sixteen pieces:

• 1 king
• 1 queen
• 2 rooks
• 2 bishops
• 2 knights
• 8 pawns

Usage of the term piece[]

The word "piece" has three meanings, depending on the context. Context should make the intended meaning clear (Burgess 2009:523) (Hooper & Whyld 1992:307).

1. It may mean any of the physical pieces of the set, including the pawns. When used this way, "piece" is synonymous with "chessman" (Hooper & Whyld 1992:307) or simply "man" (Hooper & Whyld 1987:200) harvcol error: no target: CITEREFHooperWhyld1987 (help). Chess sets have been made in a variety of styles, sometimes for decorative or artistic purposes rather than practical play, but the Staunton pattern is standard for competition.
2. In play, the term is usually used to exclude pawns, referring only to a queen, rook, bishop, knight, or king. In this context, the pieces can be broken down into three groups: major pieces (queen and rooks), minor pieces (bishops and knights), and the king.(Brace 1977:220)
3. In phrases such as "winning a piece", "losing a piece" or "sacrificing a piece" and other related contexts, it refers only to minor pieces (bishops or knights). By convention, the queen, rooks, and pawns are specified by name in these cases – for example, "winning a queen", "losing a rook", or "sacrificing a pawn".(Just & Burg 2003:5)

Moves of the pieces[]

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Chess starting position. Squares are referenced using algebraic notation.

The rules of chess prescribe the types of move a player can make with each type of chess piece. Each piece type moves in a different way. During play, the players take turns moving one of their own chess pieces.

• A rook moves any number of vacant squares forwards, backwards, left, or right in a straight line. It also takes part, along with the king, in a special move called castling.
• A bishop moves any number of vacant squares diagonally in a straight line. Consequently, a bishop stays on squares of the same color throughout a game. The two bishops each player starts with move on squares of opposite colors.
• The queen moves any number of vacant squares in any direction: forwards, backwards, left, right, or diagonally, in a straight line.
• The king moves exactly one vacant square in any direction: forwards, backwards, left, right, or diagonally; however, it cannot move to a square that is under attack by an opponent, nor can a player make a move with another piece if it will leave the king in check. It also has a special move called castling, in which the king moves two squares towards one of its own rooks and in the same move, the rook jumps over the king to land on the square on the king's other side. Castling may only be performed if the king and rook involved have never previously been moved in the game, if the king is not in check, if the king would not travel through or into check, and if there are no pieces between the rook and the king.
• A knight moves on an extended diagonal from one corner of any two-by-three rectangle of squares to the farthest opposite corner. Consequently, the knight alternates its square color each time it moves. Other than the castling move described above where the rook jumps over the king, the knight is the only piece permitted to routinely jump over any intervening piece(s) when moving.
• A pawn moves forward exactly one square, or optionally, two squares when on its starting square, toward the opponent's side of the board. When there is an enemy piece one square diagonally ahead of a pawn, either left or right, then the pawn may capture that piece. A pawn can perform a special type of capture of an enemy pawn called en passant ("in passing"). If the pawn reaches a square on the back rank of the opponent, it promotes to the player's choice of a queen, rook, bishop, or knight (Just & Burg 2003:13–16).

Pieces other than pawns capture in the same way that they move, except for castling. A capturing piece replaces the opponent piece on its square, except for an en passant capture by a pawn. Captured pieces are immediately removed from the game. A square may hold only one piece at any given time. Except for castling and the knight's move, no piece may jump over another piece (Just & Burg 2003:13–16).

Relative value[]

The value assigned to a piece attempts to represent the potential strength of the piece in the game. As the game develops, the relative values of the pieces will also change. A bishop positioned to control long, open diagonal spaces is usually more valuable than a knight stuck in a corner. Similar ideas apply to placing rooks on open files and knights on active, central squares. The standard valuation is one point for a pawn, three points for a knight or bishop, five points for a rook, and nine points for a queen (Hooper & Whyld 1992:438–39). These values are reliable in endgames, particularly with a limited number of pieces. But these values can change dramatically depending on the position, the phase of the game (opening, middle game, endings). A bishop pair for example, is worth a half a pawn on average (Soltis 2004:183). In specific circumstances, the values may be quite different: a knight can be more valuable than a queen in a particular decisive attack.

Illustration of chess pieces used in Courier chess by Gustav Selenus from the book "Das Schach-Oder Königs-Spiel" (1616). Depicted are the king, queen, rook, archer (or bishop), knight, pawn (or soldier), courier, man (or rath or sage), and jester.

Historical illustration[]

Courier Chess, a predecessor of modern chess, used all six modern chess piece types, plus three additional types of pieces:

• A courier
• A mann (or rath or sage)
• A jester.

Piece names[]

Look up Appendix:Chess pieces in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The characters implied by pieces' names vary between languages. For example, in many languages, the piece known in English as the "knight" frequently translates as "horse", and the English "bishop" frequently translates as "elephant".

(Luiro 2009)

See also[]

• Chessboard
• Chess piece relative value
• Fairy chess piece – a piece used only in chess variants
• Outline of chess
• Rules of chess
• History of chess
• Lewis chessmen
• Staunton chess set
• Chess symbols in Unicode

Notes[]

References[]

• Brace, Edward (1977), An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess, Craftwell, ISBN 1-55521-394-4
• Burgess, Graham (2009), The Mammoth Book of Chess (3rd ed.), Running Press, ISBN 978-0-7624-3726-9
• Evans, Larry (1973), Evans on Chess, Cornerstone Library, ISBN 0-87749-699-4
• Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), "Value of pieces", The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280049-3
• Just, Tim; Burg, Daniel S. (2003), U.S. Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess (5th ed.), McKay, ISBN 0-8129-3559-4
• Soltis, Andrew (2004), Rethinking the Chess Pieces, Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-8904-9
• Luiro, Ari (2009), Chess pieces in different languages, archived from the original on October 21, 2009, retrieved 2011-11-04

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chess pieces.

• FIDE on chess equipment
• History of Staunton Chess Pieces
• Chess pieces in different languages
• Online "Chess Museum" with many historic examples
• How chess pieces are made and constructed
• DIY: How to make a wooden chess pieces [sic]